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It’s no secret that global stress levels are reaching unhealthy heights in these 48 hours or so of the countdown to Election Day in America. So, to help us all relax a bit, smile on one another and breathe deeply, here are a few notes about good things happening in La Capitale… Item – Now […]

Two days ago, Paris made a pair of decisive moves. Let’s start with the simpler one, a statement that elicited huge sighs of relief from most quarters, not least the art world… It all began in 2017, when superstar American sculptor Jeff Koons and the then US ambassador announced a generous gift to the […]

In France, the first day of May marries two traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with each another: offering a bouquet of lilies of the valley to one’s nearest and dearest, and celebrating International Labor Day. The noisy parade routes, jammed with union members and sympathizers waving banners, are lined with sausage stands […]

Blocks of ice are crashing off my roof as I write. Did pdv really just leave New England for Paris, or was it all a dream? To be snarkily honest, it is a bit hallucinatory to go from a town where two feet of snow merit a same-old-same-old shrug, where the municipal snow dumps rise […]

The Fiac (foire internationale de l’art contemporain) opened on Thursday for four packed days of visual exploration, ego inflation, and explosive excess under the enormous vaulted glass roof of the Grand Palais. From its start in 2003 this annual Paris art fair has gained steadily in size, quality, and respect, and spawned concurrent events all […]

Day after tomorrow, whatever happens, all the posters, posts, demos, articles about the French election will be stale as yesterday’s brioche. That said… I watched Wednesday’s debate despite being sickened by the aggressivity and ad hominem insults of Marine LePen. The good news is that her nastiness, combined with a less than coherent program and […]

Thousands of voices chanting slogans, ongoing pops and cracks of ‘petards’ and Molotov cocktails, invade pdv’s room. An hour ago I was down there in the street flooded by tense mixture of anger and joy. Wherever people turn up in balaclavas (see photo) you might just anticipate trouble. Amazing though, all these baby carriages and […]